To return to home health or to stay put in hospital??

[JenRN22]

Hello, I have been thinking about the pro's and con's of hospital vs. home health for the past few months now. I guess what I am looking for is a second opinion....I've done Per Diem nursing for many years.. I am paying for benefits which include hospitalization only as I am willing to pay out for visits to physicians office due to me making a better hourly rate. I truly loved home health much more than the hospital but had a rough experience...I don't know if this is nearly the norm but after a year's time, I had put 28,000 miles on a brand new vehicle, as I was forced to perform visits routinely an hour (average) away from my home. I enjoyed the work much more, but was always given last minute admissions, frequent extra weekend coverage assignments due to the low staff retention, thus I really didn't have much of a life of my own...Should I expect that there's a much better home health company out there or is it just part of the job?? I'm working midnights so that I can work when I want and this is taking a great toll on me also. Thank you so much for the advice in advance:)

[AynneRN]

I would like to respond to the lady who said she put 28,000 on her new vehicle in a yr, this sucks, now have 7,000 on my brand new car in just over 3mo. I have decided to park it and buy a cheap economy car for HH

[tewdles, RN]

If I know I am just going down the block to chart I do not clock out of the visit...

If I am running to another home I close the visit and go back to it later...

Mostly I want to do the best job I can for my patient and for my employer, I take pride in my work so I try to be very diligent about my documentation so that I am proud of that as well.

[JenRN22]

Thanks again for all of the replies! I agree with Tewdles in that it isn't always easy to do paperwork in the home when the lonely patient is eager to talk with you and comment on how she doesn't want me to go, I am the only visitor she gets all week....When I explained this problem to my supervisor she explained you aren't there to be a friend you are there to perform a visit and move on. Maybe she was right and I did attribute my burnout and doing paperwork in the evening somewhat to not being able to set boundaries well enough but I couldn't help but feel bad for the lonely patients...

In response to putting 7,000 miles on a vehicle in 3 months I can relate and this is why I am also considering buying a second car for home health work. In the end I know that I enjoyed the home health job much more than my current hospital job even though it's 5 days a week, on our unit 3 12 hour shifts is rough especially since due to it being critical care patients are always crashing and my feet are killing me and I am drained and don't feel like doing ANYTHING for my first day or two off anyhow. :grn:

Even though in critical care, getting a patient stabilized is great, the connection with your patient in a home health setting is far greater....There is much more valuable time spent one on one with a patient, you get to know them, see them progress and are rewarded greatly in knowing you made a difference in the long term for the patient...I love it :)